Ok, this is definitely the last post

I know I made a closing post, but Kim has rightly reminded me that I have one task that remains incomplete, and I agree wholeheartedly that I can't, in good conscience, let this blog descend into the dusty depths of web history without saying a few venomous words about my former employer.

Now, purely for reasons of keeping this semi-anonymous, I don't want to name his real name, or the company. Not because I care about him, or the company, but I don't want this being hoovered up in some google search, because:

A) He's lawyer-happy, and would probably sue me just to be painful.
B) It could reflect badly on my friends still working there.

However, I feel that we can still get away with calling him Aston Younger, and go from there.

Working for Aston was a unique experience. Now, when I say unique, I'm not using unique in terms of "Winning ten million dollars in the Lotto was a unique experience", rather, I'm thinking more along the lines of "The Black Death was a unique period in Europe's History" ie. It's unique, because it's never been any more hellish since then.

Perhaps I should provide some background.

Aston ran a company that dealt in Medical Insurance. As companies go, this sort of field of expertise, at least in terms of social standing & social responsibility, slots neatly in between companies that produce toys with lead in them, and the Gestapo. That being said, you can run a compassionate ship in these greasy and treacherous waters, it's just that Aston chose not too. You see, Aston was already a very wealthy man before he ever stuck his beak into medical insurance, which, while some would call that a positive, I call a definite negative.

For starters, what else does a man like Aston need, when he already has a big house in London, owns several polo ponies, has a trophy wife/girlfriend, exotic sports car? Well, I'm sure he can think of something, but the problem was that given that Aston has all these possessions, he really can't be stuffed taking any interest in the company. He has enough money to keep him on easy street for the rest of his (un)natural life and hence doesn't really give a rat's arse about how the company does.

That being said, don't even think that given this was the case, he opted to delegate responsibility to anyone. Oh no. He insisted on retaining personal control of the company in every respect, which made it damn difficult for us to get any decision from him, given he was only in the office for less than 50% of the week. And even when he was in the office, he'd be jabbering away on the phone or off doing lunch with some other equally pretentious and annoying person.

Working for Aston was a nightmare, simply because he had no idea how to manage. His idea of management was to saunter out from his office, like the Lord descending on high, to mingle with the commoners. He'd wander round the desk, smelling of cheap aftershave, and enquire as to whether we were winning or not. Given that I soon realised he really didn't give a shit how we were or what we were doing, provided it wasn't bad news, I'd just tell him good news all the time. Contented, he would then wander off into accounts where he'd remain closeted with his egyptian book fiddler for the rest of the day, emerging only to yell about how much money he'd made or lost since yesterday.

Meanwhile, the rest of us soldiered on, without any real idea or concept about where he was taking the company, until he deigned to tell us (usually about 3 weeks after we needed to know). By the end of my time there, I didn't give a rats about him or his problems, and as a result, I finished up, packed my bags, and fucked right off.

Put quite simply, the man was an arse. I for one, am not sorry to be rid of him.